U.S. Sees Threat of al Qaeda Attack

State Department Issues Global Travel Alert

The U.S. issued an unusual global travel alert because of an al Qaeda terrorist threat — a day after it announced that it would shut its embassies and consulates throughout the Muslim world on Sunday. WSJ's Jay Solomon reports on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

WASHINGTON—Al Qaeda re-emerged as a top global security threat after suspected plots by an affiliate of the terror group led the State Department to issue a world-wide travel alert for the entire month of August.

Senior U.S. officials said they were particularly focused on Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, saying the affiliate was plotting attacks that Washington feared could be executed in the Middle East, Africa or beyond.

These officials cited increased communications, or "chatter," between terrorist operatives in the field as the primary reason behind the State Department's alert. The Obama administration said on Thursday that it would close most of its embassies in the Middle East on Sunday because of the threat.

"Current information suggests that al Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August," the State Department said in a statement on Friday.

The warning didn't tell travelers to abandon their journeys, advising caution and recommending that U.S. citizens register their travel plans on the department's website.

The State Department has issued such alerts and warnings in the recent past, but the threat is the most serious the U.S. has seen in a few years, an administration official said.

ENLARGE

The U.S. warned of threats in the Mideast, Africa and beyond. Above, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on Friday.
Reuters

While officials across the U.S. government described the threat as serious and imminent, they also said it they didn't know who would be targeted, where, or how, making it hard to assess. For some officials, the lack of detail has provoked more anxiety. It was possible the alerts themselves were issued to disrupt the planning of what a former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence described as an active AQAP operation.

A senior U.S. official said the threat from AQAP emerged "over the last week."

Another set of intelligence reports pointed to indications of plots around the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the coming week, though it wasn't clear if those indicators were linked to the AQAP chatter, the former official said. On Sunday, Muslims world-wide will celebrate the Night of Power, commemorating the Quran's presentation to the Prophet Muhammad.

In the wake of the uproar over the Obama administration's handling of the attack last year on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department is inclined to issue advance warning when they have any credible information, said Seth Jones, an al Qaeda specialist at the Rand Corp.

"There do appear to be multiple threats against U.S. embassies in North Africa, in the Persian Gulf and in South Asia," he said. "After the experience in Benghazi, it's better to get that out beforehand and pre-empt that."

The latest alert follows an uptick in threats against embassies in North Africa and the Middle East that started a few months ago. U.S. intelligence officials in May saw a spike in threats against U.S. missions and against its embassies in Libya, Yemen and Egypt, which were believed to involve bomb plots by Sunni extremists and perhaps al Qaeda-linked individuals.

Former Defense Department counter-terrorism analyst Jim Arkedis joins The News Hub to explain why the State Department's world-wide terrorism alert is cause for U.S. citizens to pause, but not to be afraid, as they travel in August. Photo: Getty Images.

Late last year, the State Department released a similarly worded warning stating al Qaeda and its affiliates could seek to strike U.S. interests on or about Sept. 11, 2012. In February, it did so again.

Friday's alert, though, warning of a heightened risk during all of August, was unusual in that it specifically warned of a terrorist attack, cited such a large area—the Middle East and Africa—and mentioned al Qaeda.

The French Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it would close its embassy in Yemen on Sunday and Monday over security concerns. The decision comes after the U.K. and Germany also decided to close their embassies in Yemen temporarily.

The Canadian government will close its embassy in Dhaka on Sunday "as a security precaution," a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Saturday.

The spokesman, Rick Roth, said Canada would continue to monitor events closely "and take the appropriate security measures." The government provided no further details.

On Friday, Mr. Baird warned that Canadian travelers and diplomats in the Middle East face an elevated security risk, and urged "a high degree of caution."

William Daly, who heads the New York office of Control Risks Group LLC, a global consultancy specializing in political and security risk, said his firm was telling its business clients as of Friday not to cancel trips—but suggested it would be prudent to postpone discretionary travel until fall.

The State Department, in addition to shutting embassies in countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt, warned that tourist resorts, bus and rail systems and airlines could be targets, standard language that accompanies such alerts.

AQAP has successfully honed bombing technology that has previously threatened U.S.-bound air travel on passenger and cargo planes, making the organization one of the prime threats facing America and Yemen—and making Yemen of the most frequently targeted sites of the U.S. drone campaign.

The U.S. launched three strikes within the past week in remote areas of Yemen where AQAP operatives were thought to be hiding. It marked the first time in more than a month that America launched such attacks there. Yemeni media reported at least five alleged members of al Qaeda were killed in strikes.

It isn't known whether the uptick in American strikes is related to the current threat. "The threat is from Yemen but it can't be confined to Yemen," a senior U.S. counterterrorism official said. "They always talk big, but you never know."

Separately, intelligence officials have been tracking a number of other al Qaeda-related threats in Africa and South Asia. In Tunisia, intelligence officials are monitoring possible plots against U.S. or European targets in Tunis by al Qaeda and a local militant group, Ansar al Sharia.

AQAP has risen in importance to the larger al Qaeda organization, U.S. counterterrorism officials believe, because they have seen indications that al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri has appointed the emir of AQAP to be a kind of general manager of the al Qaeda organization.

President Barack Obama met with Yemen's President Abdo Rabu Mansour Hadi at the White House on Thursday to discuss joint counterterrorism programs against AQAP and other bilateral issues, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials.

U.S. defense officials said there have been no shifts of assets in response to the embassy closures. Defense officials noted that in recent months the Marine Corps has built up quick reaction forces in the region, in large measure to respond to threats against embassies and other diplomatic outposts.

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